Gidderbaha (Muktsar), November 7
There was a time when parrots and peacocks took more space in the Gidderbaha grain market than farmers coming to sell their produce. That was the time when invaders and colonisers were changing the landscape of Punjab. Exactly a hundred years ago, when the old grain market, popularly known as the purani anaj mandi, was established, in 1909, there were fewer farmers and more of wildlife in the mandi, perceived to be one of the oldest grain markets of south-west Punjab.

The entrance gate of the century old market at Gidderbaha in Muktsar. Tribune photo: Pawan Kumar

There may not be any fireworks celebrating Gidderbaha mandi’s century, but people do get nostalgic talking about the past. Kulwant Rai, superintendent, Market Committee, which controls the old and new grain markets, says, “The railway line established by the Britishers in the late thirties proved to be a boon for farmers. The production of snuff, a form of ground or pulverised tobacco generally inhaled or snuffed through the nose, also picked up because of the huge potential farmers and manufacturers saw in neighbouring Pakistan. If the grain market these days booms with cotton, paddy and wheat, the mandi in the pre-Partition days used to be filled with various varieties of snuff that was also used by the Britishers.

The most common types of snuff brought by farmers to the Gidderbaha mandi were spearmint and mentholated snuff, also called medicated snuff. People used to have a thriving business here, selling and buying the stuff.” However, with the change from the archaic to the modern, snuff was virtually snuffed out and paddy, wheat, barley, gram and cotton took over.

Earlier, before the advent of the Green Revolution, Gidderbaha used to be the biggest market in India with traders coming from all over the country to buy the stuff. However, with the change in the crop patterns, snuff outlived its utility and gave way to other crops. Says a commission agent, whose forefathers used to trade in snuff, “The journey for the mandi here has been a smooth one. Normally when one crop gives way to the other, there are a lot of doubts in the minds of farmers. But when snuff went out of favour with farmers and other crops came in, there were absolutely no apprehensions or doubts among farmers. Paddy, cotton took the place of snuff and the change was smooth. The most popular snuff dealer in Gidderbaha’s purani anaj mandi were M/s Lachman Dass Amarnath and Sons. However, now their siblings are commission agents, dealing in everything except snuff.”

Says Jagir Singh, a farmer selling his paddy in the market, “My grandfather used to trade in snuff and the Britishers were his biggest buyers. That is because they converted locally produced snuff into creamy snuff, a paste comprising tobacco, clove oil and glycerine, which was later sold in toothpaste tubes in United Kingdom.”

Locals also say that once snuff went out, cotton took its place in the Gidderbaha Mandi. Paddy came in the mid- nineties and before that farmers used to bring in a bumper cotton crop. However, fraught with diseases and the fear of Boll Worm pest eating into the crop, farmers in 1995 changed to paddy in a big way.